Information about my law practice concentrating on advocacy for people with disabilities, seniors and their families. Get to know me not only as a lawyer, but my personal interests, passions and family activities.

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Advocacy

May 14, 2013

An article
in today's New York Post, that deleterious rag, offers the provoking
headline: "Rich Manhattan Moms Hire Handicapped Tour Guides so Kids Can
Cut Lines at Disney World". Gotcha! By God! What a scandal! Something's
rotten in the Magic Kingdom! I smell perfervid mendacity and liniment.
Christ! I'm about to faint. And then I read: "Some
wealthy Manhattan moms have figured out a way to cut the long lines at
Disney World — by hiring disabled people to pose as family members so
they and their kids can jump to the front, The Post has learned." "Hortense, get the smelling salts! The cripples are conning Minnie and Mickey! Help, Hortense, I have the vapors!"

Yep, there's some real investigative
journalism. Forget the dubious claim that people with disabilities are
posing as family members--it might actually be true, but let's be
clear--the tour guide in question who uses a wheel chair, has the right
to earn an honest living. If her wheelchair gets her and her charges to
the head of a line, well, whoop dee do. The article is piffle, jazzed
up, electrified, powered by the oldest ableist outrage of them all--the
notion that there are people faking disability.

Tuesday, June 18, 2013
1:00pm-2:30pm EDT, 10:00am-11:30am PDT

Early Registration Discount Deadline, Friday, May 24, 2013

Elder law practitioners must integrate estate planning with
long-term care planning and may need to contemplate a client's
eligibility for Medicaid long-term care coverage. Understanding
the tools available to assist clients in achieving Medicaid
eligibility, while ensuring assets are protected, is critical.

Strategies to consider for income planning, gifting and asset protection include annuities and various trusts such as special needs trusts and credit shelter trusts.

Counsel must understand transfer of asset rules, exceptions to the
rules, the application of the five-year look back, and how to maximize
coverage. Counsel must also recognize pitfalls and potential penalties
for transferring and gifting assets.

Listen as our authoritative panel of elder law attorneys outlines how
to use estate planning tools to best ensure that clients meet the
Medicaid eligibility requirements.

Significantly more US children have a neurodevelopmental or mental health disability than did a decade ago, according to new research.

Disabilities
that impair a child's day-to-day living have risen 16%, with the
greatest increase seen in richer families, according to the study.
Conditions such as autism or attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder appear to lie behind the increase, experts said.

But
the surveys of parents in 2001-'02 and 2009-'10 also revealed some good
news: The rate of disability due to physical conditions went down,
according to the study, which is scheduled for presentation at the
Pediatric Academic Societies' annual meeting in Washington DC. Data and
conclusions presented at meetings are typically considered preliminary
until published in a peer-reviewed medical journal.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission said an Iowa jury awarded $240 million in damages, a
record for the agency, in a trial accusing a Texas-based turkey
processing company of severe abuse and discrimination against
workers with intellectual disabilities.

The jury in federal court in Davenport, Iowa, found that
Hill Country Farms Inc., doing business as Henry’s Turkey
Service, subjected 32 men to verbal and physical harassment,
harsh living conditions and other abuses from 2007 to 2009,
after 20 years of similar mistreatment, the EEOC said today in a
statement.

The Goldthwaite, Texas-based company employed the men in
Iowa, where they worked eviscerating turkeys. The EEOC presented
evidence that the company exploited the workers because their
intellectual disabilities made them vulnerable and unaware of
their rights, the agency said.

May 13, 2013

May is “Huntington’s Disease (H.D.) Awareness Month,” and appropriate
long-term care and housing options are needed now for South Dakota and
surrounding states.The lack of
appropriate long-term care and housing is not exclusively a local
problem. Because our Sioux Valley chapter of HDSA is the only H.D.
support group in South Dakota, we regularly support and counsel H.D.
families throughout eastern South Dakota, southwestern Minnesota and
northwestern Iowa. The next closest H.D. support groups are in
Minneapolis, Iowa City, Fargo, Grand Forks, Denver and soon Omaha. While
not every H.D. family attends support meetings, of those we serve, many
probably will seek long-term care and housing options as their loved
one’s H.D. advances.

This year marks the tenth anniversary of Genworth Financial's Cost of
Care survey and it's a great time to discuss long-term care in all its
forms with your clients. By minimizing their risk, you can help them
prepare to meet the challenges of tomorrow before the task becomes too
monumental to achieve.

Besides having penned this newspaper
column about disability since 2002, I'm also a licensed professional
counselor and national certified counselor.

Recently, the American Mental Health Counselors Association (AMHCA)
sent an email to its membership declaring May 6-12 as "Mental Health
Counseling Week" and urging all AMHCA members to "set aside time during
(the week) to participate in local activities to promote and reinforce
the importance of mental health."

So today I'm tossing in my two cents. A disproportional percentage of people with disabilities also have a mental illness.

Overall, America is becoming more "disabled" as its population skews
older and medical science becomes more skilled at preserving the lives
of people with medical issues. The number of people claiming disability
benefits is skyrocketing. The federal government generally determines a
person has a disability when that person has a significant impairment in
any major life function, such as walking, seeing or thinking.

One in four Louisianans care for a child or adult with disabilities or an older adult in their home.

It
is estimated that 917,000 adults are caregivers in this state,
providing more than 600 million hours of care each year that is valued
at over $5.7 billion.

The average caregiver in our state is a middle-aged working woman who is caring for an aging mother in the home.

When you consider that 10,000 individuals turn 65 every day in the U.S., this role will only increase.

Caregiving
for children with disabilities, adults with disabilities and adults who
are aging in place starts out as a manageable activity, juggled with
one’s work and other family obligations, but within five years, the
caregiver often feels overwhelmed.

State superintendent Tony Evers says it may take changes in Wisconsin
law in order to address concerns raised by the U.S. Department of
Justice over the state's private school voucher program.

Evers was asked Monday about the letter sent last month
in response to a complaint filed alleging discrimination of special
needs students in Milwaukee's voucher program.

The letter from DOJ's Civil Rights Division says that
the Department of Public Instruction which Evers heads must take a
number of steps to better monitor the program and ensure discrimination
is not taking place.